"I went into the theater and was like, 'This won't be scary.'  But it was, it really was!"

Critics are calling it a horrifyingly good time!  The York Peppermint Patties Times says it will "experiment with your mind and leave you feeling mutated."  Entertainment Daily reports that while the plot is a little thin, "the scares are unbreakable."

Wolverine and His Deadly Claws slashes into theaters this fall!

The introduction of a mock film was used to illustrate a point: this game is not unlike the usual horror flicks released around Halloween.  Most of them aren't scary, and get boring after a while because they have that "been there, done that" feeling throughout the whole thing.  X2: Wolverine's Revenge has that same feeling...

The most common genres for movie-based games are first and third-person shooters.  What do you do when the main characters of the particular movie don't use guns as their primary weapon?  Simple: you do what the developers of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers did and make the game a hack-and-slasher.  The Two Towers proved to be a short (but fun-filled) thrill-ride.  How does Wolverine's Revenge compare?

From a conceptual standpoint, Wolverine's Revenge is the better game since it has a lot of game elements.  Not necessarily unique elements, but lots of them nonetheless, including mine-detection using Wolverine's mutant sensing ability.  The levels are also much bigger, with much more to explore and a lot more to accomplish (and more items to collect!).

In actual gameplay, Wolverine's Revenge isn't as good as The Two Towers.  It's not a bad game, but as a hack-and-slasher based on one of the year's best films, it really could have been better.

The game does have its perks though.  As a game starring the coolest mutant of them all, Wolverine, it's a given that you'd get to at least see his special powers in action.  Thankfully, Wolverine's Revenge lets you really take advantage of them.  Wolverine's claws are retractable, and while this serves no purpose other than to heal yourself (he can recover from virtually every wound received -- even a landmine or two won't kill him!), there is something really fun and really cool about being able to unleash your claws at any time.  He has a few different claw animations, too, so you can see him clinch his fists and watch him suck up the pain as the claws rip through his skin.  And you can see him stand perfectly still and act as though no pain is received when the claws come out.

Along with adamantium claws and the wonderful self-healing ability, Wolverine can "sense" (sniff?) nearby enemies, landmines, and other hazards.  While utilizing your senses, the screen is given a bright red glow.  The controller rumbles more severely as your approach a hazard, and in the case of landmines, they become visible on the screen.  This gameplay technique has been done before in the form of electronic radar in various spy-mission games.  It's a cool feature though, and the game is better with it than it would have been without it.

That all seems less important once the game begins.  First and foremost, the camera is, well...almost the complete opposite of the camera featured in Splinter Cell.  It's not at all intuitive, and makes navigating even the smallest of rooms difficult.  That's not acceptable, but I'm always willing to stick out a game -- even a frustrating one -- for a while.  As you may have guessed, the camera never gets any better.  It doesn't get worse either though, so I guess that's at least something to be happy about.

The gameplay is nothing but enemy-slashing.  Over and over again.  This is fun for a little while, but there are only two main attack buttons, making the combo system extremely limited.  Wolverine has several Strike attacks that occur automatically whenever the Strike icon appears and the X button is pressed.  These are fun to watch once or twice, but after that, it's not too exciting.

X2: Wolverine's Revenge is strictly for fans of the film and/or the comic book.  It doesn't offer anything that can't be found anywhere else (aside from the retractable claws, which can only be found in other X-Men games starring Wolverine).  Being a typical hack-and-slash clone doesn't automatically make a game bad, but a bad camera system, repetitive mission objectives and repetitive combat don't make a game great either.  The first level's only objective is to find a door!  The second level's objective isn't much more exciting.  You'll have some excitement killing all the enemies that stand in your way (and in some cases, stand off to the side and let you do as you please), and you'll be challenged by some of the levels' obstacles.  But don't expect much beyond that.

Gameplay: 6.7
For a game with more variety than most hack-and-slashers, Wolverine's Revenge leaves a lot to be desired.  I didn't expect the game to have as much depth as the movie, but I did expect a lot more.  Spider-Man's gameplay was dead-on.  The web-slinging action was as perfect as a Spider-Man game could get.  But Wolverine's Revenge is not even close to matching the experience of the X-Men movies, the comic book, or even the classic X-Men game released for the Genesis.

Graphics: 7 
The score may seem kind of low considering how attractive Wolverine's Revenge is, but consider the power of the 'Cube, and consider what has already been achieved on all three game consoles.  Lots of other games have greatly superior graphics, brining Wolverine's Revenge down on the list of visual impressiveness.

Sound: 6
The music from the movie is good, but the rest of the songs are comprised of typical video game sounds.  Surprisingly though, the brief voice-acting isn't too bad, just annoying at times (most enemies sound like they're coughing when they die!).

Difficulty: Easy
There are a few difficult parts, but aside from that, there's not much that'll keep you from completing this game in a day or two.

Concept: 6 
The mutant powers are cool, but it's not the first time we've seen them in a video game.  It's unfortunate that everything Wolverine's Revenge has to offer has been done at least a few times before, taking away from some of the glory this game could have achieved.

Overall: 6.7
X-Men fans will want to at least give this game a shot, but please proceed with caution.  Wolverine's Revenge has its high points, but it's really not the kind of game that you'll want to play again and again.  Ultra-diehard fans may feel it's worth buying, but the rest of you will be glad that you chose to read this review before opening your wallet.